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NOTES Matthew Polenzani, tenor and Julius Drake, piano Friday, February 6, 2015 – 8:00 PM Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center Program
Adelaide, Op. 46 Ludwig van Beethoven Born: December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany Died: March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria Composed: 1794‐95 Last PCMS performance: Christian Gerhaher in 2012 Duration: 6 minutes The most famous of Beethoven's lieder, Adelaide was apparently one of his own favorites. His through‐
composed treatment imbues the words and descriptions in the poem with an extra measure of color and expressivity. One of the song's most important unifying elements is the tender repetition of the name "Adelaide." Selection of Four Victor Hugo Songs Franz Liszt Born: October 22, 1811 in Raiding, Hungary Died: July 31, 1886 in Bayreuth, Germany Composed: 1842‐59 First PCMS performance Duration: 12 Minutes Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques Maurice Ravel Born: March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, France Died: December 28, 1937 in Paris, France Composed: 1904‐06 Last PCMS performance: Monica Groop in 2006 Duration: 7 minutes The text, translated from the original Greek into French by Michel Dimitri Calvocoressi, offers the composer no shortage of material to portray it in musical tones. In these settings, Ravel adopts a style imitative of the Mediterranean lands, but its execution is nevertheless distinctly French, and Ravel’s superb economy is here on display. Trois Mélodies Erik Satie Born: May 17, 1866 in Hanfleur, France Died: July 1, 1925 in Arcueil, France Composed: 1916 First PCMS performance Duration: 4 minutes The first of these three songs opens with a rollicking, dance hall introduction which settles into an "oompah‐
ing" ostinato rhythm as the voice enters. Like many Satie mélodies, it seems to deliberately avoid linear structure and is as charmingly aimless as the text, which describes the boredom of a bronze frog into whose mouth passersby toss coins. The text of the second song, Daphénéo, was written by Satie’s friends’ 17‐year old daughter. The music, again, is almost aggressively "unmelodic" with a lulling, lazy quality in its rocking repetitiveness. The last song is based on a folk melody Charles Gounod used in his opera Mireille (1864). Here we see the quality of vocal virtuosic excess run amok, the melody covering a span of almost two octaves in its first four bars, the accompaniment cheerily bounding around in compound meter, a highly Gounodian touch. Hermit Songs, Op. 29 Samuel Barber Born: March 9, 1910 in West Chester, PA Died: January 23, 1981 in New York, NY Composed: 1952‐53 Last PCMS performance: Duration: 17 minutes This 10‐song cycle was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation. The texts are anonymous writings from Irish monastic sources of the 8th through 13th centuries—most notably marginalia of hand‐copied manuscripts that embrace every possible sentiment, from the devout to the obscene. Barber responded with sympathetic settings that greatly amplify the humor, wisdom and piety of the texts.